Thursday, May 04, 2006

Indian Rice & Chapatis

Last night I made Indian Rice Salad from May All Be Fed-- brown rice cooked with Indian spices, then tossed with veggies and a mild dressing and chilled. The recipe recommended serving the salad with chapatis (Indian flatbreads), so this morning I made a batch of Oat Chapatis from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian.I tucked two into the lunch box and we ate the rest with breakfast (they're excellent warm with margarine and spicy peach butter).

Also in the lunch box today are a tropical fruit cup and a new experiment I am calling "So-Gurt". "It's not fair," shmoo complains. "Everyone else in my class gets Go-GURT® but I don't." Have any other parents out there been hearing this? Oh, the sufferings of youth! Apparently squeezing flourescent yogurt out of a tube is simply not to be missed.

I know some marketing genius is developing soy yogurt tubes even as we speak, but in the meantime I'm trying my hand at homemade: I filled a snack-size ziplock bag with about 1/2 cup cherry soy yogurt and froze it overnight. This morning I cut a very small slit in one corner of the bag. Hopefully at lunchtime shmoo can finish tearing the corner away and push out the custardy yogurt.

Verdict: My son was able to successfully squeeze yogurt out of a baggie, making him feel at one with his peers. It seems silly to me -- half the yogurt he would get in a cup, and a wasted plastic bag. But then again, so do a lot of things nowadays. I guess I'm just an old mom, sitting in my rocker telling "when I was your age, we ate with spoons" stories. Oh, the rice and chapatis were good, too. 4 stars.

47 comments:

That rice salad looks yummy, and I'm so impressed with your So-Gurt! I, too, this Go-Gurt is retarded, but nobody asked us, I guess. On the other hand, my sister and I used to go crazy for Push-Ups from the Schwanns Man, and those are at least as ridiculous as Go-Gurt.

Ah yes the go-gurt. You know they actually are not that good tasting. I bet shmoos so-gurt was better, and now I'm going to have to try that myself. I do have a question though. You are always mentioning the cookbooks (so many of them I'm overwhelmed) that you use or that inspire your recipes. I am a new vegan and not that good of a cook to be honest. So I was wondering what your recommed to a young, new vegan as their first vegan cookbook. And again I'm looking for more simple less intimidating recipes. Thanks a lot!

College Vegan Athlete- I highly recommend "How It All Vegan" and "La Dolce Vegan", both Sarah Kramer cookbooks. They are both must-haves. Easy recipes with lots of flavor, and not too difficult to make. La Dolce Vegan would probably be your best bet cuz most of the recipes are pretty quick. But How It All Vegan is essential as well.

Man. The thing I remember envying more than ANYTHING in my friend's lunches were string cheese. My mom refused to buy them due to high salt/fat content (killjoy!), and I remember turning green with envy when the rest of the kids opened their lunches. Thank goodness Shmoo hasn't asked for those. . . even The Mighty Shmoo might have trouble w/that one!

Jennifer, you rock for being so creative about making that fun yogurt treat for Schmoo!

And to College Vegan Athlete... i've been vegan for 12 years and have loads of cookbooks, but my favorite is still 'The Compassionate Cook' aka, the PETA cookbook by Ingrid Newkirk. It has simple recipes that always get raves from my friends and family. It's on Amazon.com right now for $10.

Ooh, we own the World Vegetarian book and have been making Indian food galore lately... but I am a very lazy baker and it hadn't occurred to me to make chapatis or parathas. I will have to check that out to make some bread to accompany our dinners!

Go-gurt... I will never understand this phenomenon. The kids in my class also drink a lot of that drinkable yogurt, which is really just sweet colored milk. Yech.

i have been lurking here, but think this blog is fantastic!!! I made Chapati the other day, actually, using wheat flour. It came out okay, but they got hard very quick and came out more crispy than tortilla-like...maybe it was the pan...

You are crackin' me up over here! I think the whole Go-Gurt thing is weird but at least Shmoo got this one out of the way, unless he's hooked. The rice looks good. Tell me, what kind of syrup is packed in those fruitcups?

It's hard having a different lunch from everyone else when you're little, regardless of how awesome your lunch actually is. My mom used to pack me these super elaborate Japanese bento lunches, but I wanted lunches like everyone else. Go figure. XD I'm glad the "So-Gurt" worked out well, though!

Jennifer, I love your blog! Great stuff. I am a long time vegetarian but not a vegan. Recently my BF and I have decided to cut out all hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrups. What kind of margrine do you use? Do you know of any butter type vegan food that isn't made of hydrogenated oils? If we decided to go vegan, I don't know what we'd use as butter. lol.

Been lurking for a while, de-lurking to say what a great idea that was to freeze the yogurt in a snack size baggie. I don't like Go-gurts because they're so darn expensive. Plus they only seem to come in oddly fluorescent colors and flavors that don't at all resemble actual fruit.

You made homemade chapatis BEFORE school? Do you get up at the crack of freakin' dawn or what??!

yep Dandilion, I'm with RockScissorsPaper on Earth Balance (and Soy Garden). I also really like Smart Balance (to my knowledge the "light" version is vegan.. at least here it is! as is Smart Balance "Organic") since it's easier to find in the regular supermarkets. they're all free of hydrogenated oils.

oh and to College Vegan Athlete- I'm also a HUGE fan of simple recipes.. gotta agree with the other posters.. I have How it All Vegan and The Garden of Vegan by Tanya Barnard & Sarah Kramer, and the Compassionate Cook. Though I do have to say I like Compassionate Cook the most I guess because almost all the recipes are made more "from scratch" (e.g. there's very few, if any, recipes calling for, for example soy cheese) Another favorite of mine is probably The New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook. I'd also recommend The Teen's Vegetarian Cookbook and/or Munchie Madness.. check them out on Amazon! :) sorry for rambling..

indian rice.. mmmm. I never thought I'd really like Indian food before I went veg!I haven't tried freezing soy yogurt either! I can imagine how it would taste though.. Everything in this lunch goes so good together.

My girls aren't usually picky eaters, but they have their moments. They may scoff at a meal, but if I call it something like "slugs on toast with mucus sauce," they giggle and gobble [insert inocuous meal here] right down. Kids.

anyone else interested in trying the home-made squeeze so-gurt, a little hiking birdy told me that yu canget these sort of re-fillable toothpaste-type tubes at hiking suply stores- think they have them at REI, actually. pop a clip off the end, fill it up with squeezable stuff, slide the clip back on... has some kinda opening at the other end, I think. haven't actually used one. tho they can leak.

At our local Whole Foods Market we have Organic Apple Sauce Squeezies in Tubes by Walnut Acres (not yogurt I know, but my kids are happy with the substitute). I pop them in the freezer and they don't seem to notice they aren't getting the florescent dye filled counterparts of their peers. The package has a surfing little fruit guy on it. Makes for a yummy treat and keeps the kids happy!

I just wanted to say that, inspired by this blog, I went and bought my very own laptop lunchbox and packed my own delectable lunch in it for work today. The lunchbox seemed small at first (since it's designed for the kiddies) but it fits everything I need quite well. Thanks for the inspiration!

LOL My daughter was part of the test group for gogurt before they came out. I think she made a whole $15 for it. haha!!! Too funny. I'm going to try your homemade version and see if the kiddies like it. I don't buy regular popcicles, so we freeze ours so it's "like" a popcicle. Fantastic blog btw.

shmoo is so lucky to have a mom who goes out of her way to prepare a lunch that helps him fit in with his little buddies! i'm continuously amazed at how much effort you put into his lunches to keep them both healthy and fun. it's a wonderfully refreshing departure from the moms who pack lunches that consist of chocolate bars and chips.

i've found that a lot of the recipes just don't turn out the way they're supposed to. for instance, i'll follow the recipe carefully, but cake batter and cookie dough turn out way too runny or too dry. maybe it's just me? there are a few good recipes in those books, but whenever i try a new recipe i always do a 'test run' before making it for a big dinner or party, because i can never be sure how it's going to turn out.

i'm not trying to say "don't buy those cook books!", but those are just the experiences i've had with them.

It's cute I think when kids are just enthraled with the simplest little things. My cousin was wailing that she didn't have those hooker looking barbaie dolls: Bratz. and everyone else did and she no longer had friends. She got over it in a week.

I've been reading your blog for awhile and I love the recipes and I think it's really cool that you find ways to make shmoo vegan versions of what other kids have. Sometimes adults forget how important even a small thing like go-gurt is.

On a frugal living site a woman put yogurt in tavel sized squeeze bottles to make go-gurt. It doesn't look the same, but it wouldn't waste a plastic bag.

hiit was so nice to see an indian tiffin i have been reading your blog regularly for the last couple of weeks and i enjoy reading and trying to get ideas .but in india you do not get all the things that you mention.

Awwww. Kids just want to fit in, no matter how stupid what they're trying to fit into seems sometimes! I'm glad you found a way to let him eat so-gurt without a spoon. He'll remember it fondly.

I love these lunches. I don't have kids, but you are so creative, and your recipe links are very helpful. A definite inspiration! I just linked to this blog in mine yesterday. (Got the address from Nava Atlas.) An e-friend is amazed by your effort; I admire your creativity and am grateful that you post the results!

Jennifer, I have no regrets putting your site on my list of links. Your food, and your devotion to the cause, are both outstanding. And the Indian rice? Looks fantastic. I'll have to pick up May All Be Fed myself and give the recipes a go. Here is something that is really cool: my readers have checked out your site because it's listed on mine, and they have read about my shift to eating in a much more mindful way (veggie), and now they themselves are considering the switch. One soul at a time. One soul at a time.

Hi, eatpeace! Almost all the little plastic cups of fruit I've found contain corn syrup. The tropical cups are the only ones I can find that are sometimes juice-sweetened (I actually don't have the original packaging so I'm not sure about these Dole cups, but I know the other brand I buy is fruit-sweetened).

>>is there anything you can't veganise?

Deviled eggs.

>>your recommed to a young, new vegan as their first vegan cookbook. And again I'm looking for more simple less intimidating recipes.

I don't have "How it all Vegan!" or the "Compassionate Cook" by PeTA, but from what I've seen they both look like good basic books to start with. I really liked "The New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook" when I was just starting out; the recipes are generally simple, tasty versions of American home-style cooking, including very comfort-foody dishes like tofu pot pie, coffee cake, oatmeal cookies, etc.

"Am I the only vegan who loved--actually, still loves--junky food? I try to avoid it, but sometimes they just pop up.."

Nope. Not just you at all. I eat a lot of chips and fries and stuff like that.

To the person who asked about cookbooks: I find that the recipes in Vegan Planet turn out great every time. I've only been vegan since January, and I'm not the world's best cook, but I have yet to be disappointed with a recipe from that book.

Dandilion: Earth Balance margarine is awesome. It tastes just like butter, melts well, and doesn't have any transfat (hydrogenated oil). The "light" Smartbalance (the kind with Omega 3 added) also appears to be vegan but doesn't taste quite as buttery as Earth Balance.